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Aenea, World of
The World of Aenea is an award winning persistent world, based on a Dungeons & Dragons custom campaign world that has been in use for more than 20 years. The goal of the designing and running of this world is to bring Neverwinter Nights closer to the feel of a "pen and paper" Dungeons & Dragons game, while still keeping things fun for the general public playing online with a mix of action and roleplay. Aenea consists of over 500 areas, ranging from rocky mountains to grassy planes to glacial wastelands. Players begin exploring in the small town of Valorian's Vale, where they find themselves inside a warm and inviting inn. The world features a non-Forgotten Realms setting, over 100 new spells, new feats, setting-specific items, and tons of custom content. All designing, building, scripting, writing, and custom content work is done by the owner, The Amethyst Dragon. Scripted systems Rest/sleep system In Aenea, the default NWN rest system is disabled. Players instead use a special bedroll item (which they are given upon entering the game) and some form of nourishment in order to sleep. For most characters, they require food, a ring of sustenance, or a clear spindle ioun stone. Players with the Aenean vampire subrace need to either drink a vial of blood just before resting, or else wear a blood ring. When sleeping, characters heal some of their injuries (but not necessarily all wounds). The amount healed varies by the character's level, constitution modifier, and possible use of bandages just before sleeping. Wearing armor with an armor check penalty while sleeping can actually hurt the character. The type of food used up when sleeping may affect the character a short time after waking. There is a chance during sleep that a character will have a dream that they remember upon waking. With some dreams, there is a chance for either a positive effect afterward (for a very good dream) or negative effect afterward (for a bad nightmare). Deity favor system There are 20 different deities that influence Aenea. Each character selects one deity as a his or her patron deity. When a character has built up enough piety (see below), a character can call upon his or her patron deity for a favor. The exact type of favor depends on the deity, as does the cost in piety. All of the different favors are beneficial to the favored character, but a few may be dangerous for others around them. This can be done up to three times per day. Piety system Characters have the opportunity to build up "credit" with their patron deities. This is tracked through the piety system. Each time the character uses the sacrificial flame item (given at character set-up), there is a chance that a deity will take notice (and that character's "piety score" will increase). That number can also be increased by sacrificing gold at an altar dedicated to a character's patron deity, by praying via the VC emotes, and by DM reward. This piety is used for several different functions, each of which depletes the balance of piety. A character can pray at an altar to ask for a favor or blessing. If the character has built up enough of a piety score, the character gets a benefit for a short time. A high enough piety score means that if a character returns from the dead in the normal way (walking across a dais in the Great Hall of Zolaras), the character will regain some or all of the XP lost through dying and may have a reduced gold piece penalty for respawning. Piety is used when calling on a character's patron deity for a favor. Subrace system There are 17 custom-scripted subraces available to characters in Aenea. Each subrace gains one or more benefits, while suffering drawbacks to keep them balanced with those characters that chose not to take on a subrace. The subraces are * badger kin (gnome), * bestial (half-orc), * bright (gnome), * demon spawn (dwarf, elf, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, human), * drow (elf), * goblin kin (halfling), * gold heart (dwarf), * half-drow (half-elf), * half-sea elf (half-elf), * mouse blood (halfling), * sea elf (elf), * shadow child (dwarf, elf, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, human), * stone blood (dwarf), * triton kin (human), * vampire (dwarf, elf, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, human), * winged (elf, half-elf, human), and * wolfblood (half-elf, half-orc, human). Variable chat command system With the 1.69 patch to NWN, Aenea gained easy access to the text entered into the chat bar. The variable chat command system (VC system) is based on that functionality. This constantly expanding system is used for getting information, setting character options, using emotes, controlling the hat of disguise (and several other magical items), accessing certain player tools (such as the ability to rename items in inventory), custom scripted Dungeon Master functions, and even the player item enchantment system. This system has replaced many "widget" items and cut down greatly on the number of scripts needed for the game, while greatly expanding the possibilities for game enhancement. Player item enchantment system Aenean spellcasters can now enchant much more than just basic scrolls, potions, and wands. Using the player item enchantment system, spellcasters can actually create many items found in the module and can enhance existing weapons and armor. The system is run via the VC system, and requires that spellcasters have certain item creation feats: * scribe scroll: used for making scrolls of spells that are memorized/castable, even custom Aenean spells - scroll creation uses selectable caster levels * brew potion: used for making the different potions found in Aenea - potion creation uses selectable caster levels * imbue focus: a renamed craft wand feat, now needed to make wands, rods, and staves - wand creation uses selectable caster levels * enchant arms & armor: a custom feat needed to enchant weapons, armor, and shields * forge jewelry: ''a custom feat needed to enchant rings and amulets * ''enchant items: ''a custom feat needed for many different "miscellaneous" item types XP debt system Characters in Aenea cannot actually lose levels from dying or suffering other ill effects. There are still XP penalties for things, but all such penalties are stored as XP Debt. This running balance is paid off each round as XP is earned until the debt is gone. Player reward system Based on the time dedicated to each character, a player may earn rewards for their characters. Possible rewards can be as simple as a +1 weapon, but can include character levels or even custom items. Custom items are made by the players and emailed to The Amethyst Dragon for addition to the game module. Semi-class system Added to the game is a system for special 5-level "scripted classes". Players, once initiated into this possible "4th class", invest XP into the class to get different benefits and abilities. Ioun stone system Aenea has ''ioun stones that have been custom scripted. The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGzGyixTYmk ioun stone system] is controlled via a conversation and runs on an 18-second cycle to properly control properties and visual effects. The visuals for the ioun stones are based on the ones created by BigfootNZ. Other scripted systems Scarface's Real Respawning/Disarmable/Detectable Trap System V1.2 CEP's Sparky Spawner System (heavily modifed for Aenea) Scarface's XP/GP System V2.1 (heavily modified for Aenea) SiliconScout's Treasure Spawn System Markshire Portable Persistent Chest System (partially re-scripted in Aenea) Aenea custom content Many changes and additions to the game have been created for Aenea, and quite a few of these have been publicly released for general community use on the Neverwinter Vault. These include such things as new creature models, scripting, placeable models, and GUI alterations. Several of these submissions, plus the World of Aenea itself, have been awarded induction into the Vault's Hall of Fame (18 awards, as of June 1, 2013). Most of the custom content developed for the World of Aenea has not been publicly released, though. A few of the highlights include the following. ; Prestige classes : Aenea has 8 custom prestige classes: acrobat, animator, dragonsoul, farstep master, firestarter, ironheart, soulfire warrior, and warblade. ; Spells : Aenea has more than 120 custom spells (link) for a wide variety of spellcasters , in addition to customizations of many of the standard spells (link). ; Feats : Many new feats have been added to Aenea, ranging from a dozen new bard songs to basic attack magic for sorcerers and wizards to new item enchantment feats (link). ; Items : Some of the item appearances found in Aenea are not available anywhere else, including nearly 40 new cloak designs, new amulets (holy symbols), and new tower shields. Ammunition also features new artwork, including elemental arrows and bolts that actually show what magic they contain. ; Items, weapon models : Originating in Aenea, The Amethyst Dragon's Project Reforged replaces all of the BioWare-made weapons with all-new models and inventory icons. In addition, the Aenea version also includes additional material and shape variants not available in the public release of the project. ; Items, special : Certain items have been altered for Aenea in order to improve the visual experience of the game. The most notable of these are headbands of intellect and various eyes/lenses, which no longer replace the PC's head model with a bulky helm model, but instead add a circlet or pair of lenses using the PC's existing head model. External links * Gameworld entry on NWVault * List of NWVault submissions